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TargetPlan

Your TargetPlan pension offers you a choice of investments, from ready-made solutions to a range of funds that could form the building blocks for your own bespoke portfolio. What you choose depends largely on how confident you are making investment choices and on your attitude to risk. We can give you as much or as little support in your choice as you need.

1. Do it for me

Your scheme will have a default fund or strategy chosen by your employer or trustees. If you don’t want to choose an option for yourself, you'll be invested in this.

2. Guide me

If you feel the default option isn’t right for you, your scheme may offer a shortlist of other funds for you to choose from.

3. Leave it with me

If you have the time and experience to build your own portfolio then you may have the option to choose from the full range available to your scheme.

If you don’t make an investment choice, your contributions - alongside any employer contributions - will be invested in the default fund chosen by your employer or scheme trustees. You can find out more in your Member or Investment Options booklet.

If the default fund for your scheme is from our LifePath or Lifestyle ranges, as you get closer to retirement the types of assets in these funds automatically change to reduce the risk of your fund losing value.

In the early years, a typical default fund aims for growth. Then, as you approach your selected retirement date, it gradually switches from shares to fixed interest securities (company or government bonds) and other types of assets that seek to lower the fund’s risk.

At retirement you can choose how to use your pension pot – stay invested and draw an income from your funds (known as income drawdown); buy an annuity (for those who want a guaranteed income); or take it as cash. Your employer will have chosen to target one of these outcomes. If you’d prefer a different outcome, you can make that choice using funds in the ‘Guide me’ section below.

What LifePath and Lifestyle funds have in common is that they’re managed on your behalf and take away a lot of the worry about saving for retirement. So, as long as you’re happy with the retirement outcome being targeted by your default, and assuming your retirement date doesn’t change, you won't have to make any decisions until you retire. It's good practice to keep an eye on your investments, particularly as you get closer to retirement.

If you want to look beyond the default fund chosen by your employer, the first step is to find out if your scheme has access to a ‘core’ fund range - a shortlist of funds - to choose from. You can check to see if your employer’s scheme has a core fund range in your Member or Investment Options booklet.

Not all core funds offered have the automatic option to reduce risk as you approach retirement, so make sure you find out if that's an option on the funds you have access to. If you choose a fund without that option, you'll need to manage the process towards your retirement yourself.

If you’re a more confident investor or you have help from an adviser, you can choose from our range of self-select funds that are available to your scheme. Log-in to TargetPlan(Opens new window) to see the range of funds available.

There is a wide range of funds available which invest in shares (equities) from all over the world, bonds, cash, property and multi-asset funds. You can find out more about each of these on our Types of investment page. This range gives you the opportunity to build a well-diversified portfolio suited to your own circumstances. You can change the funds you’re invested in at any time.

Your investment choices are very important as potentially they could determine your income in retirement. You should think carefully about where to invest, and consider the risks carefully. Find out more about risk and return here.

Important information:

The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. There's no guarantee that the fund objectives will be met. For advice as to whether a fund is suitable for you, please speak to a financial adviser.